Chris Thompson

Thompson says many of his patients microdose GLP-1 drugs for maintenance, which he views as a form of personalized medicine.

“I was like, wow, that's actually, that's a great idea. So a lot of my patients actually do microdose these things”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 35:23

Thompson warns that cycling on and off GLP-1 drugs shifts body composition toward more fat and less muscle each cycle.

“So now basically you're taking your body composition and shifting it worse every cycle. So there has to be a game plan”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 34:31

Thompson reports that about 30% of patients stop GLP-1 drugs in the first month and about half by year's end, similar to other chronic medications.

“About 30% come off GLP-1s in the first month and then 50% or so by the end of the year, right?”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 31:30

Thompson says the GLP-1 gene therapy has entered clinical trials, possibly in the Netherlands, and could become a one-time treatment.

“They actually just entered clinical trials in, I think, the Netherlands. So it's very exciting. So we'll see how that goes”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 2:20:48

Thompson describes a gene therapy that makes pancreatic beta cells co-secrete GLP-1 with insulin in a nutrient-responsive way, delivered by endoscopic ultrasound.

“So basically, when a patient would secrete insulin in a nutrient-responsive way, they'd simultaneously be secreting GLP-1”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 2:17:49

Thompson argues that procedures and drugs will fail unless patients also fix fundamentals like diet, fiber, and exercise.

“the surgeries the medicines will fail unless you really address those underlying problems”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 2:16:34

Thompson explains that after crash dieting the body defends its prior weight range through hormonal and metabolic adaptations.

“So your whole body is fighting you, okay? It wants to go back to that weight, whatever it thought it was supposed to be at”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 2:06:42

Thompson advocates using AI to objectively grade procedures and sharing those grades with credentialing bodies and patients.

“It would be nice for patients to be able to select who they're gonna go to based on objective metrics”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 1:29:38

Thompson says in his lab's research, trainees using robotics performed a complex tumor resection almost as well as experts, compared with years of learning by the traditional method.

“That's why it takes two or three years to learn how to do it. They'll sit down with a robot and be almost good as an expert”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 1:28:11

Thompson argues that more diagnostic information is almost always better, though he acknowledges whole-body MRI can trigger risky follow-up tests.

“But again I think more information is better, almost in all circumstances, with diagnostic stuff”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 1:22:27

Thompson recommends wearing a CGM for a month or two to learn which foods spike glucose rather than wearing one permanently.

“I wouldn't say wear it all the time, get one for a month or two, learn what spikes your glucose, see if something spikes your glucose and adjust it”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 1:09:51

Thompson states that adding fundal ghrelin-cell ablation to ESG raises weight loss from about 18% to over 20%, possibly 25%.

“So the weight loss goes from about 18% with the ESG alone in a top center, goes up to way over 20%, maybe 25% if you start ablating the ghrelin”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 2:09:08

Thompson says high fructose corn syrup should be treated like alcohol, though fructose in whole fruit is fine.

“i think they're better than high fructose corn syrup for sure right i mean that i think we should be treating like alcohol”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 2:00:21

Thompson affirms that increased gut permeability is real and tied to metabolic illness but cautions against blaming it for everything.

“And you do see where this increased gut permeability is associated, hardcore, good science evidence with real illness. So absolutely is a problem. It's just, I don't want to blame it for everything”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 1:57:07

Thompson recounts that closing gastrogastric fistulas resolved diabetes in 60% of patients, while none resolved without closure.

“And where we closed the fistula, 60% of people had resolution to their diabetes. If we didn't close it, no one got resolution to diabetes”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 1:45:00

Thompson cites the Whitehall II study showing elevated fasting insulin predicted diabetes up to 15 years earlier, yet it is rarely checked.

“They could detect this thing 15 years earlier. They could do something about it, right? But no one does because no one looks for fasting insulin”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 1:07:16

Thompson argues fermented foods are missing from the Western diet and act as both prebiotic and probiotic.

“I think they're important and they're missing in the Western diet, which is an issue”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 24:11

Thompson believes the benefits of time-restricted eating outweigh potential risks to the gut lining from fasting.

“So I do think the benefit of the time-restricted eating definitely outweighs that potential”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 23:02

Thompson says colonoscopy is not an ideal screening method and expects blood and stool tests to replace it as technology improves.

“Colonoscopy is not a great way to do screening, right? You shouldn't have to have a relatively invasive procedure to be screened for something”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 10:08

Thompson argues that gut microbes deprived of fiber will consume the mucus layer and fail to produce butyrate needed for tight junctions.

“And if you're not feeding them fiber, they'll eat your mucus layer, okay? And we already talked about how thin that barrier is”

Huberman Lab: Best Tools for Gut Health & Weight Loss | Dr. Chris Thompson (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 21:27